Milan suffered our first loss in 25 matches on Thursday to an impressive Lille. But that was the Europa League. This is Serie A. Milan are still top of the table, and no one can catch us this week. But remaining unbeaten in the league and winning a match against a very tough Hellas Verona side is very important to our Champions League dreams this season. And getting our very young team's mentality back quickly, and before the international break, is very important on the rebound.
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| What happened here? |
Ivan Juric's Verona side go into the weekend tied with Inter in sixth place, with 11 points. That is three wins, two draws, and a loss, just one point behind Pirlo's Juventus. They also will be rested, and must have been salivating watching Milan's painful loss on Thursday. On Monday, they handed a heavy 3-1 defeat to Pippo's Benevento, for which they must be punished. For that match, Juric lined up Silvestri; Ceccherini, Lovato, Empereur; Lazovic, Tameze, Ilic, Dimarco; Barak, Zaccagni; and some guy called Kalinic. He would not mind punishing us for how dreadful he was at Milan, but he's still pretty dreadful two years and three teams later. He will have to get past himself to punish us.
Juric comes to the San Siro missing a number of players: Gunter, Favilli, Ruegg, Miguel Veloso, Benassi, Veira, and Faraoni are all out for this match, with Danzi in doubt. However, never count this team out. I don't know if it's the new what-the-hell-were-they-thinking logo, some sort of sorcery, or what, but this team drew against Juventus and beat Roma 3-0 to kick off their season, they are definitely dangerous.
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| All eyes will be on Pioli to orchestrate a win |
Pioli is still apparently missing Musacchio, but Castillejo and Calabria were back in training after missing Thursday's match, so could be available tomorrow. His biggest concern will be how to get this team to bounce back and take what is rightfully ours: three points. The team are tired and have been making more mistakes as they are also mentally weary. But this match will be an excellent test to see if they have what it takes to go all the way to top four at the end of the season.
If this were a relationship, a rebound would mean we weren't taking Verona seriously. But it is always important to take Verona seriously. This rebound is about moving forward and reclaiming our form as well as another win, mentally and on the table. This team needs this result going into the break, because we have big games on the other side. Let's hope they have what it takes to remound.
This post inspired by the music of Garbage's "Fix Me Now"